UNLABELLED Aging of the worldwide population is a concern of most governmental entities, spanning practically all areas of prevention and rehabilitation. Aging leads to physiological alterations that result in adverse social and financial effects. There is a trend to emphasize prevention, which is less expensive and socially more desirable than therapeutic intervention. PURPOSE To assess the ...

The respiratory muscles have been studied extensively during the last 20 yrs. This interest was triggered predominantly by the observation made by ROUSSOS and MACKLEM [1] that the respiratory muscles, like all other skeletal muscles, may fatigue. Subsequent research critically examined the significance of inspiratory muscle fatigue in clinical pulmonary medicine. The conclusion of this research...

Inspiratory muscle fatigue has been documented during loaded breathing or acute respiratory failure, but its role in exercise limitation is still undetermined. Electromyographic (EMG) signs of diaphragmatic fatigue develop in normal subjects hyperventilating above 70% of maximal voluntary ventilation (MVV), a ventilatory level commonly attained at peak exercise. EMG signs of diaphragmatic fatig...

INTRODUCTION The aim of this pilot study was to assess the effect of pre-operative inspiratory muscle training (IMT) on respiratory variables in patients undergoing major abdominal surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS Respiratory muscle strength (maximum inspiratory [MIP] and expiratory [MEP] mouth pressure) and pulmonary functions were measured at least 2 weeks before surgery in 80 patients awaitin...

This study determined the effect of a high vs low resistive inspiratory muscle interval training protocol on inspiratory muscle strength (PImax), incremental inspiratory threshold loading (Pitl), inspiratory muscle endurance (IE), and 12-minute distance test (12 MD) in severely impaired patients with COPD. We used a double-blind, two-group, repeated-measure design. Group 1 (n = 12) received sup...

BACKGROUND Among neurodegenerative diseases, multiple sclerosis (MS) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) have a high rate of respiratory disability. OBJECTIVES To analyze the effects of respiratory muscle training (RMT) on ventilatory function, muscle strength and functional capacity in patients with MS or ALS. DATA SOURCES A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled ...

BACKGROUND Studies on the behavior of respiratory muscle strength (RMS) in morbidly obese patients have found conflicting results. OBJECTIVES To evaluate RMS in morbidly obese women and to compare the results by using different predictive equations. METHOD This is a cross-sectional study that recruited 30 morbidly obese women and a control group of 30 normal-weight women. The subjects under...